own judgment in delicate matters
that I determined to find out if I could what Dodds thought of Lalage's
opinions. Dodds is preeminently a man of the world, very sound,
unemotional and full of common sense. I did not produce the _Gazette_ or
mention Lalage's name, for Dodds has had a prejudice against her since
the evening on which he played bridge with Miss Battersby. Nor did I
make a special business of asking his advice. I waited until we sat
down to bridge together after dinner and then I put a few typical cases
before him in casual tones, as if they were occurring to me at the
moment.

"Dodds," I said, holding the cards in my hand, "supposing that a bishop
for whom you always had a respect on account of the dignity of his
office, were to say----"

"I wouldn't have any respect for a bishop on account of his office,"
said Dodds. "Why don't you deal?"

"We're Presbyterians," said Mrs. Dodds.

"That needn't prevent you considering this case, for the word bishop
is here used--that is to say, I am using it--to mean any eminent
ecclesiastic. All right, I'm dealing as fast as I can. Supposing that a
man of that kind, call him a bishop or anything else you like, were to
say that boys and girls ought not to read 'Ivanhoe' on account of the
danger to their faith and morals contained in that book, would you or
would you not say that he, the bishop, not 'Ivanhoe,' was talking what
in ordinary slang is called tommyrot?"

I finished dealing and, after glancing rather inattentively at my cards,
declared hearts.

Dodds, who was sitting on my left, picked up his hand and doubled my
hearts. He did so in a tone that convinced me that I had been rash in
my declaration. He paid no attention whatever to my question about the
bishop and "Ivanhoe." It turned out that he had a remarkably good hand
and he scored thirty-two below the line, which of course gave him the
game. Mrs. Dodds, who was my partner, seemed temporarily soured, and
while Dodds was explaining to us how well he had played, she took up the
question about the bishop.

"I'd be thinking," she said, "that that bishop of yours had very little
to do to be talking that way. I'd say he'd be the kind of man who'd
declare hearts with no more than one honour on his hand and that the
queen."

This rather nettled me, for I quite realized that my hand did not
justify a heart declaration. I had made it inadvertently my mind being
occupied with more important matters.

"Of cour